Best of the Decade (Nate) (Essay)

Note: Like my sibling’s list, mine is made up of representatives of genre, mainly to avoid one genre taking up the whole list. My eye also tends to center on technical breakthroughs and life-changing event films. I’ve also tried to stay away from films that everyone has on their lists, and I’ve succeeded for the most part.

10. Wet Hot American Summer (David Wain, 2001)


David Wain’s first feature, is, at first glance, a normal comedy. But on second (and third, fourth, and fifth), it’s actually the best comedy of the decade and up there on the all-time list. Wall-to-wall wackyness is all there is to be found, with new jokes and gags to be discovered on every viewing. Unlike many many other comedies, there’s no relationship B-story drama or anything else getting in the way of the funny. There’s also not much motivation behind the jokes other than they’re funny. What this movie did for me on a personal level was negate everything I learned in film school (everything in movies has meaning), and inspire me to make movies in the same vain. This concept, only-there-for-funny, unfortunately went over the heads of my film professors.

The Star Trek Movies: An Undertaking, Part 1 (Essay)

Star Trek: the final nerd frontier. These are the-okay enough of that, you can see where this is going.

Yes, Star Trek. That quintessential nerd franchise. When most people imagine a stereotypical nerd, I’m betting a short, stout, bespectacled figure dressed in a puke green uniform standing in line with others much like him waiting for an autograph from the guy who stood third from the right in that one shot from that one episode he wasn’t even alive to see in its original run. I am not one of these people. Yes, when I was younger I enjoyed “The Next Generation” a great deal, and it probably had something to do with Generations being released when I was ten. But I’m not a Trekkie by any stretch of the imagination. I’ve only ever seen one episode of the original series. Which is why I’m not talking about the series, I’ll be talking about the movies. Specifically the movies based on the original series. That is, the first through the sixth and the eleventh, which was released in May this year. This will be an outsider’s perspective. I don’t pretend to know everything about them. After all, I’ve never seen the series upon which they were based. Nor have I read the books about the lore or studied the blueprints of the ships. I’ve seen the movies. Things were revealed to me I didn’t previously know and I’d like to discuss it. So let’s boldly go where many many many have gone before shall we?